Ron DeSantis canceled a planned execution in the state on Friday, days before a 74-year-old man was killed by lethal injection.
The move — the first time Florida’s governor has withdrawn an execution stay in his nearly eight years in office — comes just over a week after the botched execution of Christa Pike in Tennessee.
DeSantis, who aggressively used the death penalty during his tenure as governor, signed a letter Thursday withdrawing the death warrant against William Lee Thompson. The Republican did not give a reason for the withdrawal, which comes at a time of intensifying national and international scrutiny of the use of the death penalty in the United States.
Pike, 50, survived two lethal injections on September 30. She was taken to hospital and declared brain dead on Monday, before waking up and beginning to speak on Tuesday. On Thursday, her lawyer said she was “up and walking” at the hospital, but said her arms were seriously injured.
Drawing attention to state executions, the Pentagon announced this week that it would livestream the execution by firing squad of Nidal Malik Hasan, sentenced to death for the murder of 13 people at Fort Hood in 2009.
William Lee Thompson, 74, was scheduled to be killed by the state Tuesday for the murder and kidnapping of Sally Ivester in 1976. Thompson’s attorneys said he suffered from dementia.
A second execution in Florida, scheduled for Tuesday, has not yet taken place. In that case, James Robertson, 63, is scheduled to be executed for the first-degree murder of then-felony inmate Frank Hart in 2008. Robertson waived any appeal and told investigators he killed Hart so he could be moved to death row.
DeSantis did not provide a reason in the letter for withdrawing Thompson’s death warrant, but had temporarily stayed his execution last month pending a psychiatric evaluation. However, Florida prison officials were still preparing for Thompson’s possible execution next week.
Grace Hanna, executive director of Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, said Thompson’s lawyers told DeSantis he was “incompetent for execution due to his dementia.”
“He didn’t know where he was, he said ‘Bush’ was the president, and at times he didn’t even acknowledge that he had been sentenced to death,” Hanna said. “Per state law, he underwent an evaluation last week. Officials never released the results or explained today’s removal.”
Thompson’s attorney, Bri Lacy, said he was relieved by the outcome.
“Mr. Thompson suffers from dementia and his health is deteriorating – both of which are of great concern given an impending execution,” Lacy said in an email to The Associated Press.
“Now that Mr. Thompson is no longer on death row, we hope that the FDOC (Florida Department of Corrections) will transfer him to a suitable medical facility and provide him with the care he needs.”
A spokesperson for DeSantis did not immediately return an email seeking comment. Thompson will remain on death row in Florida and a new death warrant could be signed against him in the future.
Florida carried out 19 executions last year, the most in the state since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976. In July, Florida became the first state in nearly a decade to execute two prisoners in a single day.
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